Four times this month a Bristol church had been broken into and vandalised, with the culprits often leaving offensive or Satanic messages for the pastor. On Friday afternoon, Sullivan County Sheriff's Office deputies took four suspects into custody — an 18-year-old man and three juveniles who reportedly claimed their actions were, "nothing personal."

According to sheriff's office records, three of the break-ins were reported at Bethel View Baptist Church, 156 Mapleview Drive, between July 3 and Friday. Pastor Andy Wood described the fourth incident in a statement to investigators after the suspects were taken into custody.

The most recent incident was discovered early Friday when a church neighbor reported having seen three boys in and near the church around midnight. SCSO Deputy Melissa Marlowe and Misha tracked the boys' path through a field behind the church, but Misha lost the scent near an adjacent trailer park.

SCSO spokeswoman Leslie Earhart said Friday that David O'Hare, 18, of 713 Pennsylvania Ave., had been arrested and charged with four counts of burglary, vandalism and theft. A 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy were to be transferred to the Upper East Tennessee Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Johnson City for adjudication on identical charges. A 13-year-old boy was adjudicated only on two counts of burglary, vandalism and theft, and was released to his grandparents.

Subscribe

Warning: The get_mostpopular() template tag has been deprecated since 2.0.3. Please use wpp_get_mostpopular() instead. in /home/content/08/3516008/html/blog/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/wordpress-popular-posts.php on line 3274